TB Statistics - Global, deaths, prevalence, incidence, high burden

National TB statistics

With national TB statistics there will generally be two main types of TB statistics. There will be reports of actual cases, which is the minimum number of people affected, but these TB statistics are of limited use if many cases go unreported. There are also estimates, which are based on surveys, and they are often used to give the proportion of people living with TB. There will always be various assumptions made in compiling estimates, which is why they can sometimes provide very different figures from the TB statistics based on reported cases.

TB statistics and indeed the statistics for other diseases, will often refer to the incidence and prevalence of a disease. The TB incidence is the number of new cases of active TB disease in a population during a certain time period (usually a year). The cases of TB page gives the estimated incidence of almost every country in the world. The TB prevalence is the number of people in the population who are living with active TB. Prevalence is usually, but not always given as a percentage of the population.1“Basic Statistics: About Incidence, Prevalence, Morbidity, and Mortality - Statistics Teaching Tools”, Department of Health, New York State www.health.ny.gov/diseases/chronic/basicstat.htm

Global TB statistics

TB related deaths

TB is the ninth leading cause of death worldwide and the leading cause from a single infectious agent, ranking above HIV/AIDS.

In 2016 an estimated 1.3 million people who were HIV negative died of TB. In addition there were 374,000 deaths resulting from TB disease among people who were HIV positive. So there were a total of 1,674,000 TB related deaths. An estimated 250,000 children died of TB in 2016 including children with HIV associated TB. 2“Tuberculosis”, WHO, 2017, www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs104/en/ People who have both TB and HIV when they die, are internationally classified as having died from HIV. Forty per cent of HIV deaths were due to TB.

TB disease

There were an estimated 10.4 million new cases of TB disease (also known as active TB) in 2016 and 10% of these were people living with HIV. Ninety per cent were adults of whom 65% were male. Seventy four per cent of these people lived in Africa. Sixty four per cent of the total were in seven countries, India, Indonesia, China, the Philippines, Pakistan, Nigeria and South Africa.

The missing 4 million

In 2016 only 6.3 million cases of TB were reported, but there were globally an estimated 10.4 new cases of TB. So where are these “missing” four million? How can they be found and provided with treatment?

Drug resistant TB

There were also in 2016 an estimated 600,000 new cases of rifampicin (RR-TB) resistant TB of whom 490,000 had multi drug resistant TB (MDR-TB). People with rifampicin resistant TB are now eligible for the same treatment as people with MDR TB. Almost half (47%) of these cases were in India, China and the Russian Federation. Drug resistant TB is now an increasing problem in the worldwide control of TB and in the attempts to end TB.

A total of 129,689 people were notified as having started on treatment for drug resistant TB in 2016, but this was only a small increase from 125,629 in 2015. Also, this is only 22% of the estimated incidence, and the treatment success rate remains low at 54% globally.

Dying of TB

Dying of TB

When the number of deaths becomes as large as 1.4 million, it can be hard to really understand what it means. So to further develop your understanding of what it is like, please read about dying of TB.

Bovine TB

It is estimated that in some developing countries up to ten percent of human tuberculosis is due to bovine TB.

Regional TB statistics

All countries are asked to report their TB figures to the WHO. WHO then use these notified figures to help produce estimated total TB statistics for each country, region, globally, by HIV status and by age. The WHO figures for the estimated number of deaths from TB in each WHO region for 2016 are given below.

Estimates are shown separately for HIV positive and HIV negative people, given that the cause of TB deaths among HIV positive people is internationally classified as being HIV.

Globally in 2016, there were an estimated 718,000 deaths from TB among HIV negative men and 110,000 among boys. There were an additional 378,000 deaths from TB among HIV negative women and 91,000 among girls. These numbers correspond to 55% of deaths occurring in men, 29% in women, and 16% in children. Higher numbers of TB deaths among men are consistent with the estimate that 65% of incident cases were among men in 2016. They are also consistent with evidence from prevalence surveys which show that TB disease affects men more than women, and that gaps in case detection and reporting are higher among men.

People who are HIV negative

Estimated WHO Regional TB statistics for 2016

WHO Region

Total

TB Mortality Male 0 - 14 Years

TB Mortality Female 0 - 14 Years

TB Mortality Male > 14 Years

TB Mortality Female > 14 Years

Africa

417,000

32,000

27,000

231,000

126,000

Americas

17,000

2,500

2,100

8,300

4,100

Eastern Mediterranean

82,000

7,100

5,700

39,000

30,000

Europe

26,000

2,600

2,2,000

16,000

5,500

South-East Asia

652,000

48,000

39,000

375,000

191,000

Western Pacific

103,000

17,000

14,000

49,000

22,000

Global Total

1,300,000

110,000

91,000

718,000

378,000

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People who are HIV positive

There were an estimated 207,000 TB deaths among HIV positive men, 115,000 among HIV positive women, and 52,000 among HIV positive children in 2016.

The WHO African Region accounted for 86% of these deaths with the M:F ratio being 1.8. The M:F ratio in other regions varied from 1.3 in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region to 2.4 in the WHO European Region.

Estimated WHO Regional TB statistics for 2016

WHO Region

Total

TB Mortality Male 0 - 14 Years

TB Mortality Female 0 - 14 Years

TB Mortality Male > 14 Years

TB Mortality Female > 14 Years

Africa

320,000

23,000

20,000

177,000

100,000

Americas

6,200

1,000

0.860

2,900

1,500

Eastern Mediterranean

3,000

0.260

0.210

1,400

1,100

Europe

5,100

0.47

0.390

3,000

1,200

South-East Asia

35,000

2,400

0.20

20,000

9,900

Western Pacific

5,000

930

0.78

2,200

1,000

Global Total

374,000

28,000

24,000

207,000

115,000

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TB statistics for “high burden” countries

Of all the countries that report their TB statistics to WHO, there are 22 countries that were referred to as the TB “high burden” countries. These countries had been prioritized at a global level since 2000. Between them they accounted for 83% of all estimated incident cases of TB worldwide in 2014. In addition to the main list there were two other lists, a list of high burden TB/HIV co-infection countries, and a third list of high burden MDR-TB countries.

In 2015 it was decided by WHO that the lists would be revised but that there would still be three lists. Each list would contain 30 countries. There is more about this on the TB high burden countries page.

The following is the estimated burden of TB for each of the 30 countries in the main high TB burden list. Numbers in thousands.